1. Learning Chapter 8

2. Definition
Learning is a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience.
Learning is more flexible in comparison to the genetically-programmed behaviors of Salmon, for example.

3. Associative Learning
We learn by association. Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence. Learning to associate one stimulus with another or a response with a consequence.

4. Learning How Do We Learn?
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Dogs
Watson’s Little Albert
Operant Conditioning
Thorndike’s law of effect (Instrumental Learning)
Skinner box
Learning by Observation/Modeling (Cognitive Learning)
Bandura’s Bobo Doll

5. Conditioning: The process of learning associations.
Learned association examples from class:
Sight of bags of candy in a classroom are associated with its distribution (Classical Conditioning, Respondent Behavior)
Students associate being attentive to the instruction to the pleasure of receiving the candy (Operant Conditioning, Operant Behavior)
For my former students, sound of poker chips/ sight of bins are associated with its distribution (Classical Conditioning, spontaneous recovery or possible extinction)
Former Students associate being quiet and raising their hand in response to my hand raise with the pleasure of receiving a poker chip (Operant Conditioning, Token Economy, Generalized Reinforcement)
Current Students learn from observing former students operant behavior and mimic behavior. Generalizing the positive reinforcer of the visible candy with the poker chips. (Observational Learning or modeling, generalization or possible discrimination)

6. Learned association examples from class:
My daughter’s potty training: the urge to urinate and the sensation of wet pants. (Classical Conditioning)
Every time my daughter ask to go the potty, I place her on the toilet and give her a sticker/piece of candy and praise her. She then associates asking to go with the pleasure of receiving a sticker. Putting her on the potty helps her to associate sitting on the toilet with the pleasurable experience of receiving the sticker. (Operant Conditioning, shaping, positive reinforcement, acquisition, Second-Order Conditioning Praise and Sticker)

7. Operant & Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning forms associations between 2 stimuli (CS and US).
Operant conditioning, on the other hand, forms an association between behaviors and the resulting events.
OBJECTIVE 10| Identify the two major characteristics that distinguish classical conditioning from operant conditioning.

8. Operant & Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning involves respondent behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a certain stimulus.
Operant conditioning involves operant behavior, a behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing stimuli.

9. 5 Major Conditioning Processes
Acquisition- Initial Learning
Extinction- unlearning the association by discontinuing the exposure to the stimuli or associated consequence.
Spontaneous Recovery- a brief reappearance of a weakened response after an association has been extinguished
Generalization- responding to similar stimuli
Discrimination- determining a difference between similar stimuli

10. Operant vs. Classical Conditioning
OBJECTIVE 20| Identify the major similarities and differences between classical and operant conditioning.